Kai'ckul

Age of Wardens

I know now why this is the road I travelled. Why I have the powers with which Mediena blessed me.
My loss.
My choice.
My journey.
I questioned why I continued. I questioned the goodness of our journey and of the peoples left to ruin throughout our travels. Here, in this winery, beneath the earth again, I found the answer. There are evils of all kinds throughout this land; ancient evils that I do not comprehend. All that I know is that it must go and it cannot exist another minute. It is beyond Lost. It is ‘Ruined’. Mediena’s lost brother? Sons of the Sisters? Whatever it is and however it came to be all that matters is that it is destroyed.
I feel my strength leaving me. This may be my last action in this world but I must try. I must—

Entry 32

30th Day of the Reed, Year of the Crown

What course should await us now, after these tumultuous days?

For two hundred years I have pursued the Great Quest of the Circle: to preserve and safeguard the Flame of Therilor above all other goals. In the past day that goal has been thoroughly upended, only to finish roughly where it started yet somehow hollower.

Often in these past months have I questioned the truth or sanity of Maegwir’s mad scribblings, but never in this time did I question the validity or sanctity of our highest purpose among The Circle. Never before until now, that is. I have spent months in the grips of a nagging doubt — that somehow, one of us who swore a binding oath to protect our charge had betrayed that oath, to the detriment of a world of souls. Moreover, that two others (or more!) had conspired to assist that betrayal: in short, that our Circle was forever tainted with an indelible stain.

Do not mistake me: without any doubt I am relieved to find that, by my own finding under the benefit of a Zone of Truth, not one of the members of our order had ever intended to break their sacred oath. Throughout the events of all that has transpired, the actions of every Telcar have been in the pursuit of that quest that binds us. This fact lifts a pressing weight I hadn’t known I felt straight off my shoulders. In a sense, I am freer now than ever I was before, though the Flame’s whereabouts are now more in doubt than perhaps ever before, since the dawning of the Circle.

Yet all is not whole. Relieved am I, but changed as well. It is good to know that all meant well, and that none meant to do wrong. But our oath that once seemed so doubtless, so sacrosanct — the oath that defines what it is to be a member of the Circle — now seems clearly and fundamentally doomed. If we cannot agree on what it means to hold the Flame and what is to be done with it, then what purpose can there be in belonging to such an order?

This morning, I threatened to leave the Circle at once and for all time. It was no empty threat: I was prepared to do so if the Circle were proven to be a hotbed of deceit and, for all we knew, evil — and I should never have looked back if I had done so. Now my righteous vitriol has been replaced with bland fruitlessness.

I fear I have outgrown the Circle.

Surely, if the Flame presents itself with a new claimant and the Lost rise once more, I should again take up the quest to do what the world may need of me. But for now, I find I have no interest whatsoever in searching for it. Wherever it may be, who am I to say it does not belong there? Or to say what else it should do?

In the dark, we awaken The Last Light

present: Nilbud, Hammerdal, Eldorin, Khalo

As soon as the whole party makes their way across the rope line, Nilbud wall-walks across the chasm to disable the line, lest the 2 UMBERHULKS and 10 ANKHEGS attempt to follow us. We go down the chimney-like opening in the wall, away from the fight. The way is so cramped, Khalo and Eldorin take a level of exhaustion (Mortifer, however, is unaffected (: ) Falling out of the chimney into a massive clearing, Hammerdal disturbs what appear to be bats…but they disappear. As the rest of the group makes their way through the clearing, they see the large room of stone walls is flickering with light fixtures within the walls. In neat piles, seemingly randomly distributed, are piles of precious metals and gems and…displayed conspicuously atop some of these piles, items that had been pilfered from the group’s pockets earlier in the caves.

Nilbud looks for tracks. The floor is suspiciously clean; not even any sign of guano from the (assumedly) normal bats perched above, who so far are just watching us. Khalo looks for traps. He discovers that the sources of light, burning filaments behind glass sitting in the stone walls, are trapped: if triggered, an electrical current would explode throughout the room.

Nilbud sees her black candles on top of a pile, and Hammerdal sees his token of Mediena (gifted to him by Elias) on a different pile. As he goes to grab it, it floats up in the air, as if taunting Hammerdal, before it disappears. “Uh…guys?”

The group decides to deliberately set off the trap from the safety of the one doorway present in the cavern (an ornate doorway, framed in stone carved to look like dragon arms, each stone scale precise and meticulous). As they walk into the room, they are greeted by the sight of dozens of WYRMKIN in what appears to be a barracks. The room itself is a giant metal dome, retaining the fluid pattern of the molten copper it was poured from. Though they are positioned defensively behind overturned bedding and furniture, Hammerdal bq). senses no immediate danger. Nilbud notices they have recent injuries.

The only member of the group who speaks DRACONIC, Eldorin, overhears their chatter: “Who are they?/Why are they here?/The BUKKA let them through!” Eldorin steps forward and says to them:

“But he sleeeeepsssss!” they all repeat. The Wyrmkin are skeptical; Eldorin doesn’t look that old to them. Eldorin creates an illusion of a light that seems to emanate from him, and whispers mentally to several of them simultaneously messages of the our prowess, history with the Great One, and how we belong. The group is successfully intimidated, and allow the party to pass to face THETEST. We enter a narrow passageway on the other side of the room, led by the lead Wyrmkin. We immediately trigger a trap that sends sharp pikes stabbing from the ceiling. Eldorin absorbs the hit and angrily instructs the Wyrmkin to warn them of any other “safety mechanisms” in the tunnels. The Wyrmkin explain that they have been fighting THESEERS, which to the best of our understanding are mounted spiders.

Through the passageway, we come across another large room, with two other exits: a bright, crafted doorway directly across from where we entered, and second earthen passage to the left, which appears to lead upwards. The ground is covered in dead bodies, a thick layer of mist, and the stench of death. We see the bodies of Wyrmkin, PALLIDDWARVES, the Seers/spiders and some kind of reptilian beasts. Some of the bodies are turned to STONE.

We move on through the bright door, and come to a 40′×40′ room, with a high copper dome ceiling. Bones are everywhere. Melted, burned, shattered and exploded bones. In the center of the room, a large metal column reaches all the way up to the ceiling. It is covered in gears, valves, buttons, tubing and wiring. There are 5 prominent levers all around the column, each a different color, each in the “up” position. On opposite sides, two clock-like displays read “6” and “12.” This appears to be the TEST the Wyrmkin spoke of. On the far side of the room is a giant bronze door with no seams or hinges or cracks. As we enter the room, metal bars slam shut behind us, blocking any retreat…and the countdown begins.

The two clocks begin to count down. Hammerdal runs to the bronze door and swings the INDAHAMMER against it with no effect. Eldorin hits the a large red button on the side, and the timer that was counting down from “12” goes up by 6 seconds. Nilbud pulls the purple lever down, and both timers go to “0.” Electricity explodes from the center of the room, and magic missiles are launched at us. Ouch. The timers reset. It is clear, now, that all of the bones in this room were killed by the effects of this test. Nilbud climbs the tower and inspects the inner workings of this machine. The levers control the main functions. Hammerdal runs and attempts to pull down all the levers, getting all but one (purple) before one of the timers hits zero, and all party members make a Charisma save to avoid being struck helpless with uncontrollable laughter. Khalo alone succeeds, but is grappled by a MAGICHAND. He investigates and determines that two of the levers go to the “6” timer, and three of the levers go to the “12” timer. The timers hit zero and reset, and this time both Eldorin and Khalo resist the laughing spell. Realizing that this is a very benign consequence, they decide to keep the lever configurations as they are and study further. Several rounds pass as some fall to the laughter, others recover. We learn the Red, Blue, and Green levers control the primary mechanism.

So that R-B-G remain switched down, Nilbud flips the orange lever up. All areas of the room are scorched in a magical explosion. Hammerdal falls. Eldorin uses MISTYSTEP to go beyond the metal bars and back into the room with mist and corpses. He shares the room with a tentacled BEHOLDER watching the events in the Test Room with interest. Saving the party from certain death, Eldorin uses MAGEHAND to flip the orange switch back up, leaving us with only the laughing spell to deal with. He wisely MISTY STEPs back into the room to avoid the Beholder. Hammerdal gets back to his feet as the party struggles to survive. Finally, with only the red and blue levers down, the machine deactivates. The large bronze door opens, and we leave the room as fast as we can.

We enter a massively broad and deep cavern. We cannot see the ceiling. It’s excruciatingly hot, as if inside an oven. The ground is covered in a branching pattern of dried riverbeds, and active rivers and rivulets flowing with a silvery liquid that seems to be dripping from the ceiling. All of the rivers lead to the edge of a cliff at the far end of the room. Dun-colored figures are rushing toward us…WYRMLINGS. Beyond them… Maegwir.

Stunned by our presence, he dons the FLAME OF THERILOR and yells “Shut the door!” Nilbud immediately puts on her CLOAK and disappears. Eldorin shuts the door. Khalo, using all of his charm (X’arrm?) shouts out:

Maegwir! we’ve been looking for you! We’ve got to talk!

Maegwir, meanwhile, has his eyes on the INDAHAMMER. “Copper! Give it to me!” The WYRMLINGS have reached us…and continue to run past us. Nilbud, invisible, moves closer to Maegwir. Khalo continues:

We must discuss…payment! uh…to get information from you. Why are you here?

“To Awaken Brondurium.”

Hey, us too!

Khalo successfully stalled long enough for Nilbud to get reach Maegwir. She attempts to stun him…and succeeds! She grabs the crown and attemps to pull it off his head, but the crown itself resists! It also resists Eldorin’s attempt to do so with MAGEHAND.

The Wyrmlings, who had run to barricade the closed door against whatever was banging on it from the other side, saw Maegwir under attack and looked ready to begin an attack. Hammerdal brandishes the Indahammer and promises death to the first creature that takes a step forward. They falter, for the moment.

Khalo runs forward and succeeds in ripping the FLAME OF THERILOR from Maegwir’s head, and the runs back. Eldorin casts BANISHMENT, and Maegwir disappears!

We decide to go forth to the edge, and peer into the darkness, looking for any sign of Brondurium. Nilbud, informed from a fresh vision of the past after wearing her cloak, teaches Hammerdal the WALL OF FEAR properties of the Indahammer. He excitedly tries it, slamming it down into one of the dried riverbeds. The handle begins to melt where it touches the ground. Whoops!

We investigate the Flame of Therilor. Eldorin (crit 1) believes the crown only likes older, more powerful elves than him. Hammerdal attempts to smash it with the Indahammer, but succeeds only in knocking off a few gems from the setting of the hammer. Whoops! We try to melt the crown in the same riverbed that melted part of the hammer, but nothing happens. Eldorin holds the crown ceremoniously and calls forth Brondurium. Khalo prays to Brondurium. He believes that the dragon can only be called forth when copper and tin are mixed. The only source of copper we have (at least the characters that aren’t in-pocket!) is the Indahammer.

Hammerdal dips the handle of the Indahammer into a nearby flowing metallic river and melts more of the copper handle. At this moment, the giant door burst open, and in floats the BEHOLDER, flanked by six PALLIDDWARVES riding BASILISKS, two pallid dwarves on foot, and two of the illusion-casting SPIDERS we had fought before. The WYRMLINGS move to stand on either side of the door, seeming to wait for something. The ground rumbles, and stops. With reluctance and gravity, Hammerdal drops the entire Indahammer into the river, and watches it dissolve. (Within moments, his new-found confidence had left him, and his desperation to leave these tunnels returned.) The ground begins violently quaking, and the party barely manages to stay standing on the edge of the precipice. The Beholder retreats through the door.

“The Elder Wyrm,” “The Last Light,” “Light’s Vengeance," rises from the darkness. Lightning explodes forth from him, arcing out and evaporating all enemies while leaving the party and the Wyrmlings unscathed (not unlike the Ark of the Covenant (: ) Maegwir re-appears after the Banishment spell is completed, and Nilbud cold-cocks him into another stun, binding and gagging him. The great dragon sets his giant legs down on the edge of the cliff, on either side of the adventurers as they stand in awe. It turns its giant body and neck around to look at us. Eldorin speaks. “Grounded One: the Lost have returned.” Brondurium rumbles in reply:

What are the Lost?

“We are the SONS of the WYRMS.”

So are they.

“They are the failed sons.”

You are the failed sons.

“That may be, but we seek peace; they seek war.” Eldorin and Nilbud tell Brondurium of the Lost Wars. The dragon considers, and says:

I must seek proof of what you say. Why did you awaken me?

“We seek your assistance. We want peace with the Lost underground.”

That, I can do. I hope I have not been awakened in vain….

and with that, the great dragon lifted off of the ground, and disappeared down into the chasm from which he came.

Nilbud gives Maegwir another clock on the jaw, for good measure. Suddenly, Finrodel appears and says haughtily “Give him to me. And the crown. Thank you.”

Nilbud mentions Galgaroth’s treachery with Elias as we grab hands are are teleported back to Oakenfell. At the sight of the sun, Hammerdal falls to his knees and sobs, overcome with emotion. Nilbud, unsettled by Finrodel’s actions and the stonewalling the group receives even in the safety of Oakenfell, dons her cloak, disappears, and LEAVES.

to be continued…

Eldorin and Hammerdal have inspiration. Nilbud and Hammerdal have crit 20 cards to spend

Entry 31

27th Day of the Reed, Year of the Crown

Looking back, it is a remarkable fact that we are alive — indeed, better than ever. The legendary Indahammer within our grasp, waiting to play a role in this next chapter of history, and at that it is difficult to imagine that these days are not merely the legends of future ages.

We did not perish after the first foray into these halls, moreover it seems we have learned to adapt to even these harsh circumstances; it is a challenge not to feel invincible under such circumstances.

It remains to be reunited with Orieth. Rarely since her first summoning have we been apart this long. It puts to mind the severing of a limb. I long for the nearness of her counsel; simply feeling her presence in my mind is a source of confidence I lack when she is so far. I call to her in my mind out of habit, but she does not answer, she does not hear, she does not exist for all I can tell. Healing that, among other things, will be a great comfort when we rise once again from this forgotten tomb to life and greenery and Kai’ckul. I yearn for it. It calls to me.

9/29/16

The group continued down the seemingly endless Tunnel, until a glint of gold caught in the distance caught the eye of Hammerdal who rushed forward to get it and was trapped in the sticky lure set by worm like creatures who attempted to charm the party. Between being charmed and stuck in webbing and grabbed by the large fleshy bodies the martial members of the party struggled with these creatures! However, between magic and the dog-mole’s ferocity the creatures were defeated.
A short journey down the tunnel later the companions discovered a huge cavern of yellow gold and white filled with precious metals and gems. This cavern had been mined out by dwarves to assist them in reaching the lowest levels of the caverns. There are a great many ways out of this series of caverns as they were carved 1000’s of years ago. Even some the dwarves did not know about. Hammerdal picked up 50gp worth of gold. Nilbud collected gem flakes (150gp worth) as did Eldorin. Nilbud also found a large diamond inside an uninteresting rock that Hammedal left as a marker for the way we came. Nilbud marked the door subtly with ink and smaller stones. The group went down the 3rd passage. They heard a whistle similar to that left as the way to enter these caverns and came upon a number of dwarves working the stone. Mortifer the mole growled which suggested that something was amiss. They turn out to be intelligent spider creatures that had changed forms to lure us into a trap! Good ole Mortifer tipped us off. The spiders retreated to a dead end and turned invisible as they attempted to trap us in their webs. With our usual panache we dispatched the creatures and went back to the cavern of precious stones. .
This time we took the 6th entrance. This lead to a cavern with a large chasm splitting the room in twain. A small ledge ran along one side. Large cricket like creatures were buzzing as the group came near. Eldorin’s magic destroyed many of them, but the others retreated and continued to drone. The sound attracted a group of Umber hulks which attacked. Khalo had jumped over the chasm and found and exit on the other side. Nilbud set up a rope bridge for everyone to cross and then the group escaped with minimal damage. Khalo had to carry a confused Hammerdal across, but all made it safely. Just as Nilbud detached the bridge a group of Ankhegs burst out of the opposite wall and were upset to see that their prey had escaped.

A small chimney like cavern awaits out intrepid adventurers.
No one has inspiration.
Nilbud has one red card: -1d8 after making a save.

Session Notes 8/1
=Flashback=
Razhad opens the chests that seem to contain lots and lots of copper. Razhad takes 10gp worth of copper (100 coins)
Razhad opens the chest in the grick room. Find a maul with a dwarven sigil, small iron dwarven shield, Jewelry and the Royal Garments of the noble family. Razhad takes the jewelry and the group takes the rest to deal with at another time.

==Back to the present====
Baranel casts create water and puts out the burning braziers. Hammerdal opens the door and tons of amphibian like creatures attack. Eldoring instantly freezes half the group while Nilbud runs up to the leader holding the indahammer and unsuccessfully attempts to disarm him. After the group vanquishes many the remainder run, Eldorin stuns the rest and Razhad and Hammerdal cut them down where they stand.
Hammerdal is given the indahammer.
Khalo is back!!!!! The hermitage is going great! He has quelled the rebellion of the priestess of _________ . Also, Moss is there and Khalo returns Nilbuds cloak to her. The sword of Decsynth is buried under the mountain near the hermitage. Khalo seems somehow changed.
Now that the cloak is returned to Nilbud her vow of silence has ended.
As the adventurers continued down the corridor, they come upon a large door propped open, Nilbud and Razhad duck in but it slams shut soon thereafter and Razhad gets out, but Nilbud is trapped.
Khalo, Hammerdal, and Elias encounter another group of carrion crawlers and fights them. Then return to the door to investigate. The door is covered with more dwarven runes, a riddle! Razhad decodes the musical riddle and the doors swing open.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HI0x0KYChq4 (Skip to 1:20)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mIwa9sPFT5I
The group explores the many branching tunnels they find below and come across only a few unique locations. An iron stand for something like a weapon….the indahammer does not fit.
As we went along a few of our things went missing, and we heard the sound of giggles and the flutter of wings.

Another shuffling sound approached and then a yelp and the sound of something dying. Hammerdal charges forward and finds a mole dog being killed by a group of spiders. We destroyed the spiders mostly by setting fire to the webbing (our go to plan it seems) and Khalo healed the Mog (Mole-Dog) which began to follow him. He responded well to the name splug.
We found the remains of a humanoid in a crack way up high in the ceiling. A vial is found in his shoe and given to Eldorin, Nilbud takes a polished mirror. Also a throwing Ax and 3 ancient mint are retrieved.
All but Khalo have inspiration.

September 18th

The group peers into the room beyond the room containing all the chests. It is a large banquet hall with brozeware set for at least 500 table settings. The room looks dilapidated with plates a cups strewn about and tapestries crumpled from their hangings. The group attempts to rest before moving forward, but are attacked by oozes and jellies as they begin to bed down.

Tyler J. --Send an email with Item improvements

The oozes caustic bodies eats away at metals and wood, even the chests, when exposed, melt to slag and lightining traps from four of the chests are ignited splitting the oozes in half! Although magic weapons seemed to be unaffected.

After destroying the goopy adversaries Eldorin set an Alarm on the doors and the group completed a rest. Evan, Alex, Ben and Bill. Leveled.

As Eldorin and Baranel kept watch they saw movement of creatures past the braziers.
Nilbud went and scouted ahead, the hall past the braziers branched right and left. Group went right. This passage and the rooms adjacent had been ransacked by creatures. There were afew rooms off to each side with miscellaneous detritus much of which was stained with blood now old and brown.

Eldorin finds a hidden doorway which pushes open easily. This room was a kitchen with prep tables surrounding the oven. Written on the side are operation instructions in an old dialect of Dwarvish. NIlbiud decodes it with the help of Elias, then Eldorin does some fancy magic and find that they were right. The oven is on ingenious design using magenetism somehow. Hammerdal turns the oven on and Nilbud turns it back off and pulls him out of the room before he makes any more noise.

Down the hallway we encounter a room with figures asleep in bedrolls, the equipment of wardens sits by the door. After some discussion of how to approach these people we enter the room ready to parlay when we are attacked by creatures instead of people. We killed them.

This room contains another chest that cannot be opened without Razhad, plus some strange glowing green candles that appeared to have been there for some time. We continue around the corner where one direction leads to a stairway up while on the other side of the hall is a large metal door with a bronze lock and knob. We called for Razhad to open the door, but it turned out to be unlocked.

Inside this room is a large statue and Altar to Brondourin. Eldorin reads the large amounts of text scrawled all over this room. Mostly about worship of the bronze dragon with some pictures of sacrifices of metal poured into the mouth of a stone idol. It looks like something attempted to remove the statue, but had been unsuccessful. It also spoke of a curse on the innahold treasures and had images of the innahammer. There was another semi-circle of strange black candles unlit before the altar. We took them.

We are attacked by more gricks and puddings. We killed them. As Hammerdal played with the stone hanging throughout the room and creating electric shocks that hit some of the party, a number of burning braziers were thrown into the room from outside and the door slammed shut.

Entry 30

26th Day of the Reed, Year of the Crown

Future readers must forgive my failing script; I struggle to force my fingers to move in the right ways as they slowly mend. I should survive, though it comforts me to know that I have labored to set down my experiences in this journal — that even if it may take a thousand years, someday another may stumble across this record and learn what transpired here — that even if I should fail, knowledge lives on.

This place confounds my every bit of wisdom of the world we inhabit. The people are twice the size; the creatures are dark and eyeless. They slither and crawl about, feeding on unknown, seemingly invisible things. A moment ago I saw a small creature with five legs spaced evenly around its circular body, and no face whatsoever. It scurried off no doubt to be swallowed by some tentacular maw.

I do not intend to reveal this to my companions, but I begin to doubt our presence here, to wonder if this was a grand mistake. If we succeed in reaching the Dwarven Holds and if we find the mythic Indahammer we will be left with a dire question of what to do with it. But for now even reaching such a place is a matter of no small significance. This place is death to surface-dwellers. It smells not of rot — rot is a rich smell of earth, which hints at life — but of the absence of life. It smells like an old tomb. My hope is that this simile is not apt.

Entering the cavern in the Innahold we were almost immediately dropped in on (literally) by a giant of a man, Tor is his name and he “protects for God”. He claimed that this God was one of earth and “like them” as he pointed at two huge dragon statues at the back of the cavern. His huge cavern contained three exits. One on the ground level that was very large and carefully carved that that he claimed as his own “Tor Cavern”. The middle entrance was approached by a set of stairs and flanked by the Dragons statues. The highest level looked like it had been burst out of the wall.
Eldorin convinces the giant that we are also in service of God and that he should let us pass. Clearly not having spent much time studying colors Eldorin almost blows it by claiming that the god must be brown colored when he meant something more metallic. Once that was snafu was sorted Tor gladly let us pass. We decided to go up the middle way, as we approached Nilbud investigated the statues which started to move, Eldorin detected thoughts and found them to be curious about us, but they let us pass.
The entrance let to a well carved hallway that had no light. This hallway contained many bones. Nilbud jostled the bones and they did not move so we continued along only to be surprised as large burrowing creatures bust from the walls and attacked. Some members of their party were hypnotized by their gaze, but they were eventually defeated and we continued along out way.
The next chamber was large and had been carved out by flowing water. It was warmer than the others and had large stalactites. Which of course dropped on us as we crossed the room; Two types of strange creatures attacked. The first was a large worm type that had a sharp beak that attempted to impale us as it fell, the other had incredibly long tentacles that grabbed people and pulled us to the ceiling to devour us. After lots of arrows from Jethrail and some acrobatic feats from Nilbud we wiped them out.
We followed the water out of the passage as the temp increase dramatically. The next room was so filled with steam that they was no way to see anything. We followed the walls around and found two passages. One very hot and one cooler. We took the cooler path and pulled a goonies as we slid down a short natural waterfall slide.
The next room was squarish with carved pillars and beds. It appeared that it had been used recently(ish) and that they people left quickly. There was lots of dwarvish iconography that had been defaced. Dwarves and dragons had been scratched out and replaced with lots of spider and eye imagery. There appeared to be instructional parables for children around the room. All the dwarves in the images were grey colored with black eyes. The story warned “Do not look at the doggies, or you will become stone”
There were three exits from this place. One well constructed and straight ahead. One carved roughly in the corner of the room and the last was hidden behind the waterfall. We chose the waterfall door and after eldorin stopped to dry his hair. We continued up a stairwell that lead to a long arching bridge over hot molten metal (the hot door from the previous room led to a sharp drop and instant death). We crossed the bridge which led to a dark room ringed with treasure chests and skeletal remains reaching toward the chests. There was soot and scorch marks around the entire room as well. As we entered the room these skeletons animated into tentacled boners. It took everything we had, but we defeated them, we left the chests as they were hoping that Razhad could do his thing once he was with us.
We looked into the next room which was a huge dining hall set with food (now spoiled) for many hundreds of people. Plates were scattered and tapestries were torn. It looked untouched for a long time. However, there were braziers burning brightly on the far end of the room.
We were hurting pretty bad and had used many of our resources so we stopped there. Baranel and Nilbud have inspiration
Bill owes Alex $7

Reply to the Calendar!

The battle begins as our hero’s enter the throne room. 7 Warriors, 2 Keres sisters face the group as Crea starts chanting holding both Downings and Elais’ hand.
Elias Banishes Crea to another dimension and Eldorin hypnotizes many of the warriors, Nilbud sneaks around the back and stuns the Keres sisters. Beranel Bears down (hehe) Hammerdal smash! While Jethrail and Razhad do insane amount of damage from a distance.
Nilbud uses sleight of Hand to get back Elias’ hand and then puts an end to Martin Downing with one hesitant punch. At which point the guards lay down their arms (the ones that were left anyway)
Elias had to make the choice to reattach his hand or not. With a warning from Mediana he chooses to leave his stump as it is and suddenly his unattached hand shrivels and decays.
The group finds Downing battle plans and sends them with Downing’s signet ring to King Pieter with a letter of explanation.
Triath Adrin was placated with the idea of claiming Downing’s gold.
A letter is written to Downing’s army from “Martin Downing” claiming that he had a change of heart and wants his soldiers to live in peace while they can and protect the homeland.
We spend a week of downtime planning and searching Downing’s and Crea’s rooms.
Crea’s room- contained lots of keres idols as well as a journal of her research into rejuvenating Downing.
Downing’s room- Razhad did his normal baller job of opening a triple locked and trapped chest. In the chest were gold bars worth more than we have ever seen. Also, in a secret compartment a piece of a rock. This rock was the one that crippled Downing. Nilbud took the rock.
We use much of the money to hire 25 pale souls. 10 will be assigned to guard Archab with the remaining gold. 10 will go to the ant tower and clear/guard/keep watch. 5 are sent to Elias’ farm with his brother and our horses to help get it back on its feet.
Once all these plans have been set in motion, the group gets into mining carts and heads south toward Innahold. It takes one week. For the first few days we saw dwarves headed back up, but for the last day and a half no return journeys were spotted. We arrive to an already opened cavern with red glowing light filtering out. Pieces of dwarves litter the opening….. To Be Continued.
Baranel and Eldorin have inspiration.